I was in SF last week, for training. I wrote every morning. One of the things I’m doing is summarizing the books in different ways. I already had the “pitches” for the novels — 1 paragraph short, catchy descriptions of the books. I first created longer blurbs — think back cover of a paperback — 2-3 paragraphs. Now I’m writing the synopsis of each book.
I have difficulty writing the synopsis of a book. My technical writing brain takes over, and I only want to write about the plot points. I loose the essence of the book, the feel of it. Writing three in a row has been a very interesting experience for me. I feel as though I’m learning a tremendous amount as I do each. The second one was superior to the first, containing many more of those crystallizing details, and I hope the third is even better.
One surprising thing I learned: the second novel is actually tighter than I’d thought it was.
Because I was in SF, I didn’t have a lot of time for writing last week — merely 30 minutes or so every morning. It was focused, compressed time. I’m very glad I did it, gave a nice tone to the rest of the day. Yesterday I went to the park and sat in the sunshine and wrote for 1 1/2 hours. It was glorious to have all that time to luxuriate in writing, really get into it.
In the evening, I took myself to the Poco wine room. They have a lovely outdoor patio, next to a burbling fountain. I sat there, listening to the water, and gave myself permission not to write, if I didn’t feel like it. I also gave myself permission to write. I ended up writing an approximately 600 word short story — flash fiction, as it were. I think it’s good. I typed it up this morning — still fiddling with the ending. Will go look at it again in a week or so. It has that feeling though. My best short stories are the ones that just flow into me from somewhere. I’ll end up changing very little in it. It has that voice.
Now, it’s time to take a shower, do my nails, possibly even put polish on my toes, and walk up to the Farmer’s Market. Then, because I can, I may play a little Portal on my Mac. But only a very little because my arm/neck is still not 100% well. I’m better, but I have to be very careful still. ::sigh::
I hope that each and every one of you is having a marvelous weekend as well!